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WellPoint, Inc. and IBM have announced an agreement to develop computer-based medical solutions, reports TechI.

IBM's Watson can process 200 million pages of data in three seconds, an ability it used to win a game of Jeopardy against human opponents earlier this year.

Now it will use that computing power in an effort to advise doctors.

This is the first commercial application of Watson software, and it's expected early next year.

WellPoint's Chief Medical Officer Sam Nussbaum told TechI that "there are breathtaking advances in medical science and clinical knowledge, however; this clinical information is not always used in the care of patients."

Watson can be fed new information from medical journals, hopefully proving it will be a valuable resource for doctors to consult. We'll hear how effective it is in a few short months.